Zaun seeks runoff primary elections

DES MOINES - A state senator who finished first in a congressional primary election last spring but lost the nomination at convention now wants Iowa lawmakers to consider scrapping the current system and going to a runoff election between the top vote-getters to decide a winner.

Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, has pre-filed legislation he plans to introduce during the 2015 legislative session that seeks to change current election law to establish that the top two vote-getters in a primary election that produces an inconclusive result face each other in a runoff election to decide who wins their political party's nomination.

Under current Iowa law, an inconclusive primary occurs when no candidate received at least 35 percent of the vote in the primary election need to land the party's nomination for the November general election. For candidates seeking statewide offices, congressional offices or legislative seats, the party's nomination goes to convention where delegates choose a general-election candidate.

Zaun, who was the top vote-getter in last June's Republican primary in Iowa's 3rd congressional race, wants to scrub the current convention process in favor of a runoff election that would be held four weeks after the primary election that produced the inconclusive result.

'I've had hundreds of people come up to me and say what happened to you is wrong and it should have been the top two vote-getters like it is in so many other states rather than going to a convention,” Zaun said in an interview. The goal is to make sure the 'people's voice is heard” by conducting a primary runoff election like 11 other states, Zaun said, not place the decision in the hands of convention delegates.

During the June 6 primary, Zaun finished first in the six-way congressional primary with nearly 25 percent of the vote, but his 10,522 ballots fell short of the 35 percent required to secure the 3rd District nomination outright. He also led several ballots at a special GOP convention but ultimately lost the nomination when delegates selected David Young - who finished fifth in the June 6 primary.

Young went on to defeat Democrat Staci Appel in a general election to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of U.S. Rep. Tom Latham and will begin serving a two-year term next month.

Zaun said he requested the bill draft at the urging of Iowans unhappy with the way the process unfolded and he is 'very optimistic” about moving the bill forward in the split-control Legislature because it's not a partisan. He dismissed critics who viewed the effort as sour grapes over the election outcome, saying 'who better to get up and file a bill and try to move this legislation forward than someone who has been through it?”

The idea has drawn mixed reviews with Gov. Terry Branstad telling reporters that he would be willing to consider requiring top vote-getters in state-level primary races to compete in a runoff election if no one garnered support from at least 35 percent of the ballots.

Branstad has told reporters some cities in Iowa and some others states use runoff elections to decide the outcome when no candidate receives a required plurality of votes and he would consider that change if a proposal came before the Iowa Legislature. He noted he was part of a six-candidate field in 1982 when he made his first bid for governor and managed to avoid a state convention fight by garnering the required 35 percent needed to secure his party's nomination.

However, House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said he believes the current process in Iowa whereby an inconclusive primary election outcome is decided by political convention has served the state well. 'I'd have to hear an argument on why that one is better,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he would not 'reject it out of hand” but he was hesitant to embrace a change given the relatively few times the situation arises in the nominating process. The last time a congressional nomination was decided by convention was when Steve King emerged as the GOP winner in a four-way race in 2002 after garnering 31 percent of the primary election vote.

House Democratic Leader Mark Smith also expressed reservations but did not have 'strong feelings” about the issue, saying 'I think we've got a system that's worked fairly well for us.”